
Qass L4ii_ 

Book JLLi 



HUMILIATION AND HOPE: 



OR, 



THE CHRISTIAN PATRIOT'S DUTY IN THE PRESENT 
CRISIS OF OUR NATIONAL AFFAIRS. 



A DISCOURSE 



JDEIilVEREr) NOVEMBER 14, 1863, 



THE DAY OF FASTING, HUMILIATION AND PRAYER 



APPOINTED BY THE SYNOD OF UICHIOAM. 



[PUBLISHED BY BEQUEST.] 



GEORGE DUFFIELD, 

PASTOR OF TIIF. FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CONGREGATION OK DETROIT. 



DETROIT: 
t»R.rNT£ID BY O. S. G-XJIjt^Vi 

1862. 



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or 



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SERMON. 



Psalm 79:8 a 9 : — " O remember not against us former iniquities ; let Thy 
tender mercies speedily prevent us, for we are brought very low. Help us O God 
of our salvation, for the glory of Thy name ; and deliver us, and purge away our 
sins, for Thy name's fake." 

We can find no more appropriate form of prayer for this day, 
than these words. Indeed the sjiirit, if not the language, of this 
entire Psahn, may be of use to us, in that humiliation of oiu-selves' 
before God, which the Synod of Michigan has recommended to 
its congregations, and for which the present circumstances and 
exigencies of our coimtry loudly and solemnly call, from every 
Christian patriot. It is entitled " A Psalm of Asaph," and is 
one of those plaintive strains in which the Spirit of God led that 
holy prophetic seer to tune his harp, and strike its strings, in 
unison with the moanings of the chill winds of a dark night. It 
is the cry of distress pom-ed out into the ears of the Eighteous 
Judge of all the earth ; the wail of a widowed heart, importu- 
nately pressing its prayer, in a season of great p^il and perplexity; 
just such as the Saviour seems to have had in his view, when 
applying his own parable of the poor widow and imjust judge. 
He asks, " And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry 
day and night unto Him, tho' He bear long with them :" — Luke 
18: 7. It seems to have been dictated for the use of the Church 
in affliction, and tells of martyrdom, whether in the flesh or spirit, 
or both. It suited well the condition of the Church in Asaph's 
days ; and that of the people of God in any and every age and 
country whenever oppressed, or suflfering from calamitous events, 
and the ravages of war. 

Whether persecuted and put to death for the testimony of 
Jesus, or perilled and perplexed by the fierce ragings of tempest- 
uous passion, breaking forth in disastrous desolating war, God 



has always had a remnant in the earth, of whom it has been pre- 
dicted, that appeal should be made by them to Him, wath some- 
what of the awful power we feel to be in the cry of the souls, , 
seen in vision beneath the altar — '' How long O Lord, holy and 1 
true, dost Thou not judge, and avenge our blood on them that; 
dwell on the earth," Rev. Y: 9. Whatever distress of the Church i 
and people ot God on earth, wrings from them the enanguishedl 
prayer, meets sympathy and response from Heaven. We adducet 
the text as a guide to direct us in the prayerful and penitenti 
exercises for which this day of fasting, humiliation and prayer 
has been set apart : " O remember not against us," &c., &c. 

It suggests an inquiry into the reasons fw humiliat/ion^ and of 
Ihope^ in t?ie present and perilous crisis of our national affairs. 
To this subject we invite your attention — not in the light of party; 
political discussions; but of history, and of the word of God. , 
1. The prayer in the text comprises confession, made under 
a deep sense of humiliation, and earnest entreaties for Divine aidi 
and interposition, urged by arguments and motives taken from thei 
character of God. 

Confession of sin is an indispensable condition of forgiveness.i 
Tliere will be no confession of sin where there is not a knowledge; 
and sense of sin. Where that knoAvledge is correct, and a deep 
sense of the moral tiu^itude of sin is felt, there will tliere be a pro- 
portional or correspondent humbling of the heart, through ai , 
consciousness of moral degradation. In such a state of mind 
the ]>ride, obstinacy, and rebelliousness of the heart will o-ive 
way ; and the contemplation of the excellent character of God 
will induce hope of success, in an earnest, confident appeal to 
Iliiii tor pardon, helj) and salvation. 

Our religious sernces this day will be of little real practical 
valiK? tr. oiirHclven, or to our country, if we do not intelligently j 
ftj.prehend, and humbly acknowledge, the sins, on account of 
which God la seeking to luinible us, by the distress and calamities 
II JH providence has brought \x\m\ us jw a nation. The pastoral 
letter of the Synrxj, read in your hearing last Sabbath, has suffi- 
ciently enlightened every intelligent reader or hearer, so that it is 
not needful hero, to^ay, for us to ask what sins may be called 



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national, or what are the particular sins of this nation for which 
God has a controversy with us. The prayer contained in the 
text involves one or two principles important to notice, as pre- 
paratory, and of use to us in the inquiry we propose. 

The first is, that the gbeat and obvious design to be had, 
IN considering national sins, by those who would pray aright, 
w, to have the heart so aefected and humbled in view of them, 

as to be -WnXING FRANKLY AND INGENUOUSLY TO CONFESS THEM. 

There may be, and there is reason to fear that there have been, 
inquiries and discussions as to the national sins^ which tended 
and were often intended, more for party strife, debate, and gratifi- 
cation of hatred and malice, than for real humbling of the heart 
before God. In all true penitential prayers, the heart must be 
brought low in its own accoimt, and not be lifted up in rash 
censorious and self-righteous spirit toward others. " Behold ye 
fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness; 
is it such a feast that I have chosen V said God, by the mouth of 
His prophet Isaiah. Such praying and fasting will do more 
harm than good. 

The SECOND principle implied in the prayer contained in the 

text, is, THAT IN CONSIDERING NATIONAL SINS, WITH A VIEW TO 
HUMILIATION AND CONFESSION, THOSE PRESENTLY PREVALENT MUST BE 
REGARDED IN THEIR CONNECTION WITH, AND TRACED UP TO, THEIR 

APPROPRIATE SOURCES, IN THE SINS OF A FORMER PERIOD. " O re- 
member not against us former iniquities." 

The sins of to-day, in individual history, have a relation to those 
of days and years past, — often as the effect stands related to its 
cause. One sin begets another. The sins of youth produce their 
baneful results in mature age. Like the flowing fountain, the 
stream can be traced to its source. One lie, or crime, is often the 
parent of hundreds and thousands. If we would be truly hum- 
bled, and confess our sins, we must deplore, not only the sins of 
to-day but of yesterday ; not only of this week, or month, or 
year, but of all the past period of our lives. This principle is 
equally applicable in considering the sins of a nation which call 
for humbMng and confession. The sinful customs, legislation, or 
arrangements, of one generation, unfold themselves in the multi- 



6 

plied and aggravated crimes and coniiptions of others following. 
As in families, the iniquities of fathers are visited upon their 
children, so do the crimes of a nation accumulate, as transmitted 
from generation to generation, and age to age. 

The \'ices now prevalent in society, which distinctly mark the 
nation's guilt, may all of them be traced back, and loimd con- 
nected with those of a former period in our history. Thus, the 
public desecration of the Sabbath extending so rapidly in our 
land, if not originated, was greatly jjromoted and sanctioned, by 
the example of the governmental authorities, which first became 
gross and glaring, diu-ing the war of 1812, with Great Britain, 
The plea ot necessity then led to the transportation of the mail 
between our large cities on the Sabbatli ; and altho' there was no 
authority or sanction of law, for contracts to be made by the 
Postmaster-General for that purpose, except on the six secular 
days of tlie week, yet in despite of numerous and strong popular 
remonstrances, the e^dl continued imabated by the Federal au- 
thorities. The result was, the laws of different States on the 
subject gave way to federal usm-pation. Decisions of supreme 
coiuts in States, and especially in Pennsylvania, relative to what 
had previously been regarded as a breach of the peace, overruled 
the usages and construction of law previously protecting the 
Sabbath, and providing punishment for its violation. The day 
in various ways, unjiracticed before, gradually thereafter became 
secularised. The strong public sentiment on the subject pre- 
viously, became neutralized. Diversions, and means of hilarious 
indulgence, M'cre extensively substituted, for the healthful influence 
of public worship, for the moral and religious teachings of the 
sanctuary. Thus, a generation was educated to walk in the sins 
of their fathers. Sabbath laws becoming obsolete, through want 
of enforcement, they now remain a dead letter on our statute 
books. 

Tliis evil lias been greatly aggravated by the annual immi- 
gration, by hundreds of thousands, of a foreign population; of 
which a French writer, of great power, has justly, but cautiously, 
remarked, that they " have not always been the eli^ of the old 
world," and nuist " have necessarily introduced into the decision 



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of public affairs, some elements of immorality." The result has 
been, that the Sabbath has not only lost its strong barriers of 
protection by law, but open war has been made against its moral 
and religious influences as restraints upon liberty, and an inva- 
i sion of pei-sonal and social rights. 

j The same remarks may be made in relation to the national 
sin of intemperance, which is the prolific parent of three-fourths of 
the crjmes that render jails and penitentiaries necessary to protect 
society, and nine-tenths of the pauperism and squalid wretched- 
ness, demanding costly poor-houses, hospitals, and lunatic and 
drunkard's asylums; and also of the enonnous taxes levied for the 
support of criminal justice, and the relief of the destitute, diseased 
and degraded. The " license system" of former generations, which 
makes the State, under pretext of controling the evil, the patron 
i and promoter of dnmkemiess and its ever attendant crimes, — ^has 
developed itself in results, which have exposed us to the calum- 
nious charge of being a nation of dnmkards. It is true, there 
has been a sore and steady contest going on, on this subject, for 
th,e last third of a century; and ciu-ative and sanitary legislation 
with moral measures, have been employed to resist and to raise 
the dykes needed to save us from tlie rising, swelling ocean-tides 
of intemperance, tliat have threatened to inundate us. But the 
prohibitions of statutary and of organic constitiTtional laws, thus 
far, have been neutralized, thro' the want of fidelity to their trust, 
on the part of official f luictionaries, and the failing of enlightened 
public sentiment, of moral virtue iu the masses, to sustain and 
demand their enforcement. 

The guilt of a former generation, in fostering by its license 
law, the giant vice of intemperance, has culminated in hosts of 
crimes, that are its legitimate offspring, and as a direct conse- 
quence, in the prevalent spirit of lawlessness, which has impeded 
and defied to a great extent, the execution of law, and the ad- 
ministration of criminal justice. Our fathers sowed the wind, 
and we are reaping the harvest of licentiousness, which, God only 
knows how soon, may become the whirlwind of anarchy, coniii- 
sion, dismemberment, and dissolution of our Federal, State and 
municipal governments. 



8 

In thus tracing back to the appropriate sources our national 
sins, as reasons for Immiliation and confession, we should be 
unlaithful to oiu- Master, our country-, and to you, beloved hearers, 
did we not especially notice that, which, undeniably, it is admitted 
on all hands, by men of every grade of political sentiment and 
party attachments, is the immediate, and by the Southern seced- 
ing States, the avowed cause, of this war of rebellion now looming 
up in such colossal proportions, and producing so much disaster 
and distress. We mean the slavery, transmitted from former 
generations. Oiu- revolutionary fathers, almost universally, re- 
garded it as an evil, not only social and political, but also moral. 
Washington a christian, and Jefferson an unbeliever, with hosts 
of other bright luminaries in our political galaxy, deprecated 
it as a bane and curse, and trembled in view of the future 
retributions of a righteous God. 

The men of moral worth and heroic faith, who lied from per- 
secution and oppression in the old, and carried with them to this 
new world, nothing but their Bibles, to lay " the foundation of a 
free country with poor and valiant hands," descried it, and de- 
nounced it as an incubus and entailment, imposed upon the 
Colonies by a tyrannous rule, and dreaded its perpetuation as an 
omen and harbinger of certain terrible evils in the future, if not 
removed before the growth of a century should give it giant 
proportions. They favored, and to some extent succeeded in their 
attempts at, gradual abolition. But slavery had taken deeper root, 
and more extensively in the Southern than in the Northern soil, and 
could not easily be eradicated. The*representatives of the people, 
in framing the Constitution of the United States, felt constrained 
to tolerate it; but feared and refused to speak of it by its proper 
name. " Sad, profoundly sad," it has been well and truly said, 
" is the spectacle of nations wherein we make no noise." It was 
let alone. Perhaps it was all that could be done, by those who 
hoped that the future would take care of itself "Would to God" 
exclaims an eloquent writer, and friend of our beloved country, 
"that slavery had not been let alone, when the Republic of the 
United States was founded ! Then abolition was easy, the slaves 
were few in number, and no really formidable antagonism was 



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in play. Unhappily, false prudence made itself heard : it was 
resolved to keep silence, and not to deprive the South of the 
honor of a voluntary emancipation — in tine, to reserve, tlie ques- 
tion for the fiitm-e. The future has bent under the weight of a 
task, whicli has contiruied to increase with years, — thanks to 
letting it alone. A little more letting alone, and the weight 
would have crushed America." 

As a nation, God has made us " possess the iniquities of our 
youth." " Our fathers have sinned, and are not ; and we have 
borne their iniquities." We quote the language of Scripture ap- 
propriate to the case, not by way of reproach, but as matter of 
actual undeniable history. The sin of Jeroboam, the son of 
Nebat, no more truly made Israel to sin, than have the iniquities 
of a former day, in this land of boasted freedom and Christianity, 
borne down to us a heavily freighted load of guilt, which has 
water logged the ship of state, and apparently, uninfluenced by 
the helm and steerage of the pilot, is floating toward the break- 
ers. May the good and gracious Lord, " who holds the winds in 
his fist," quickly appear, walking on the billows, for the rescue 
of the fomidering bark, and salvation of the crew. 

We shall not, however, in our cries of distress, to-day ad- 
dressed to Him, attain that depth of humiliation, and sincerity 
of confession, of present and former iniquities, if we adopt the 
same fatal policy of our fathers, and ignore or defiantly refuse 
to deplore, the slavery whicli has been so jjrolific of evils, social, 
moral, political and sectional, in which we now find ourselves, 
whirled, driven, and seemingly ready to break and sink in the 
vortex of our national ruin. In this, as well as in other of om* 
national sins, we may and ought to find reason for humiliation. 
They have not only rendered us displeasing to God, but disgraced 
us before men; and made us a by-word and reproach among the 
nations. Abundant reason is there for humiliation. Concealment, 
silence, excuse, palliation, justification, reciprocal obloquies, can 
never befit the exercise of that repentance which is necessary 
to avert the demerited wrath of God. It behoves us to look 
steadily, calmly, and ftilly into tlie face of our present actual 
condition, that we may meet, intelligently as a Christian people, 
the approaching solemn crisis of our national affairs. 



10 

As a nation we are suffering, bleeding, staggering, under the 
heavy pressure of enormous evils. A gigantic war stretches itself 
over us from Maine to Mexico. A ferocious rebellion, at the end 
of two years from its inception, still bids oiu- million host defi- 
ance, and menaces with salient pride our capitol. Many of 
our Generals, from whom impatient multitudes made impetuous 
demands for crushing out the rebellion, and on whom the nation's 
eyes and hearts were set, have failed to meet their cherished ex- 
pectations. Anathemas are substituted for acclamation; mala- 
dictions and curses for laudations and blessings. Distrust and 
dissatisfaction with the ruling authorities, from the President 
down through all departments, have been loudly and unmistak- 
ably expressed. Frequent vacillation and mistakes have seriously 
damaged popular confidence in the executive and his cabinet. 
The elements of factious and party strife are at work. "We are 
rending ourselves, and irritating wounds which need care and 
nursing to heal. Reciprocal charges, and angry cries of treason 
are alienating hearts and kindling the malignant fires of passion. 
The cockatrice eggs are laid — " He that eateth of them dieth ; 
that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper." The elements of 
anarchy are becoming more and more obvious; and confusion may 
at any moment be waked into terrible action. Avaricious selfish 
cupidities have become voracious. The idol of mammon is exalted 
above the honor of God and the interest of country. Like the 
pernicious grub that nourished and developed at the root or on the 
bark, silently excoriates and slowly saps the life of the stately oak, 
hosts of ^GEKiA {borers) and parasitical growths have made the 
noble tree of American liberty droop its stately head, and give 
indications of decay. 

The crimes and corruptions of Europe have been exten- 
sively imported. The licentiousness and lawlessness of a large 
portion of the foreign population, which the unsuccessful revo- 
olutions of 1848 had thrown upon our shores, have organized 
and acquired a dangerous force. At no distant day they may 
renew here the scenes of anarchy, which then, for a season, 
threatened to shake down the thrones and governments of 
Europe. Our large cities contain the embers of a slumbering 



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volcano. Elements are gathering there, which, if not kept under 
the restraints of moral and religious influence, and ci^dl and 
municipal law, may ere long burst forthwith earthquake violence. 
An observant foreigner has said, with pregnant truth, "the greater 
part of the immigrants remain, of course, in the large cities ; 
here they come almost to make the laws, and here too, noble 
causes encounter the most opponents. Contempt of the colored 
class, that crime of the North," he adds, " breaks out most of all 
in large cities, and particularly among agglomerations of immi- 
grants ; none are harsher to free negroes, it must be admitted," 
he continues, " than newly landed Europeans, who have come to 
seek a fortune in America." 

Have we not cause of humiliation, therefore, in view of 
present national sins and evils, descending from the past? 
They may, if God withdraws His providential care, at no 
very distant day, become fearful agents of destruction ! We 
occupy not, to day, the lofty moral position we once had 
among the nations of the earth. The prestige of our noble fame 
has suffered greatly. The character and power of our Christian- 
ity and religion have been insufficient to save us from the shame 
and disgrace of civil war, and the just reproach of brethren, in 
families and in churches, once united by consecrated ties, turned 
against each other with ferocious and malignant hate. Well may 
we blush, and be ashamed to lift up our face, as Ezra said, while 
in deep humiliation we should cry " O remember not against us 
former iniquities ; let thy tender mercies speedily prevent us, 
(^.e., come before, crowd in front of us,) for we are brought very 
low." But all is not lost; nor all means and opportunities for 
the re-establisbment of the government, Union, and future^pros- 
perity of our country. 

H. There are soueces and reasons fok hope to cheer us 

AMID the gloom AND DARKNESS AND PERILS THAT SURROUND US. We 

allude not to our material resources of wealth or numbers, and 
capability of severer endurance and mightier resistance, even if 
foreign powers, which seems not now probable, should openly 
nourish and abet the rebellion that has cost the entire nation the 
sacrifice of two hundred thousand lives, and hundreds of millions 



12 

of treasui'e. Let public functionaries, generals, statesmen, and 
judicious conductors of the press do this. But we refer to other 
and greater. All natural resources fail a people, if God aban- 
dons them to the just consequences of their iniquities. The 
grounds of hope, and arguments in prayer to God, of which we 
speak, are the resources we may have in our Lord Jesus 
Christ, our own and our father's God. Two additional principles 
in the text suggest them. 

There is first the glorious character of him to whom we 
PRAT. " Help us God of our salvation for the glory of thy 
name." 

He is a Saviour God, and not a destroying foe. As such it 
conduces more to His honor, and delights Him more, to help and 
save than to punish and destroy. Here then is one great argu- 
ment, with which we may, and ought to, make our appeal to 
Him. There are great interests of truth and right, of morality 
and religion, of civilization and humanity at stake, and awfully 
perilled by this fatricidal rebellion, that may justly, and ought 
most powerfully to awaken our earnest solicitudes. We may in- 
deed possibly err, in attempting to scan and grasp the views and 
plan of Omniscience. But from all the lights of history, the 
precedents of scripture, the sanction and guidance of its princi- 
ples, and the present indications of Divine Providence, we may, 
we think, in truth, affirm, that God's honor and glory seem to be 
deeply and intimately involved in the ^^reservation of this land, 
and of the imion of its several States. 

It is not only a land of freedom, an asylum for the oppressed 
of all nations, as it has been for generations ; but it is a land of 
religious liberty, where God alone is recognized and honored as 
the Lord of conscience. It is a land that has attained that liberty, 
thro' the blessing of His Providence, on the bold magnanimous 
assertion of right and truth, made by our fathers, in reliance upon 
the God of their salvation. It is a land of Bibles, where reli- 
gion knows no unhallowed imion of Church and State, and asks no 
greater j^owcr for its support than the Spirit of God Himself. It 
is a laud of primary and Sunday schools, of seminaries and 
colleges for both sexes, where education rules, and woman, God's 



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last and best natural gift to man, is cherished, honored and 
exalted, to exert the mild, mellowing and mighty influence of her 
sex, for all that is good and generous, noble and patriotic, be- 
nevolent and God-like.- It is a land of Christian churches, and 
Christian missions, of Christian philanthropy and charity, of 
private benevolence, and profuse public liberality. These are all 
instruments and agents for good, which meet the mind and de- 
light the heart of God our Saviour, wlio lived, and died, and 
sacrificed himself to save the lost. What an argument may we 
thence derive with wliich to make our appeal to Him, as we trace 
the bearing of these things yet upon this huid, and through it, 
upon the best interests of the world, and the glory of God. True, 
we have our vices and corruptions, our inconsistencies, contra- 
dictions, and systems of oppression and mischief, not yet put 
away from us, which call loudly for repentance and reformation. 
But they have not yet filled up our cup of iniquity, as a doomed 
people, and caused, all that is just and pure, and holy, and noble, 
and of good report, to eflfervesce, and overflow, and leave but 
the fetid dregs of crime behind. May we not then humbly and 
devoutly cherish the hope, that God has not yet cast us off, but 
is preparing us, by suffering, for a higher destiny, to subserve 
the great ends of Ilis own glory ? 

A SECOND source or gromid of hope for the futm'e, we may 
discern in a further principle, implied in the text, viz. : m the 

OFFICE AND DESIGN OF JeSUS CiERIST, PROPOSED TO OUR FAITH, AS 
THE God OF OUR SALVATION, ^iND THE SaVIOUR OF THE WORLD. 

" Help US O God of om- salvation, for the glory of thy name; and 
deliver us and purge away our sins, for Thy name's sake." God's 
name is in the Lord Jesus Christ ; " My name," saith Jehovah, 
" is in Him." His work on earth is to deliver from perdition, 
and purge away sin. If we, as a nation, therefore, or if the 
great mass of Christian people in this land, will rouse, and exert 
their influence, to reform the corruptions in society, so that the 
governmental authorities enact and enforce just laws, and main- 
tain the right, tlien may we confidently ho]ie, that the future of 
our country will be blessed and glorious. The Lord's controversy 
with us, and the need of chastisement will cease ; and Jesus 



14 

Christ, the God of our salvation, will perfect for lis the deliver- 
ance, it is His office and glory to accomplish, for them that trust 
and honor Him." "Is not this," says he by His prophet, " the 
fast that I have chosen ? to loose the bands'of wickedness, to undo 
the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye 
break every yoke ? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, 
and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? 
when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him ; and that thou 
hide not thyself from thine own flesh? Then shall thy light 
break forth as the morning, and thy health shall spring forth 
speedily ; and thy righteousness shall go before thee ; the glory 
of the Lord shall be thy rere-ward. Then shalt thou call, and the 
Lord shall answer." — Isa. 58. Faith can use this argument, and 
inspire the humbled heart with hope. 

But unbelief has its doubts and fears. The timid and des- 
ponding are ready to say, "Let the war cease; have done with 
it almost on any terms. Let the Southern seceding States go, 
and take with them for ever the complications of their own 
slavery, for which they have raised the standard of rebellion." 
" The emancipation to which the President, in accordance with 
law, and upon the plea of a military necessity, has pledged the 
nation," say others, "is a thing morally, politically, and physi- 
cally impossible. To attempt to execute it will be tyrannical 
usurpation, a violation of the Constitution, and the ruin of both 
North and South." But, when the thing is just, and morally 
right, and will make for His own glory, God loves, in His provi- 
dence, to accomplish what men account impossibilities. Ordinary 
rules of human judgment meet not the emergencies of extraordi- 
nary occasions, when He undertakes to answer prayer, and to 
accomplish His will and designs of love and mercy in the earth. 

Let us then, for a few moments, in conclusion, repress all our 
party prejudices and hates, and timid unbelieving doubts, and 
despondence, and calmly endeavor to look upon, what many 
account a black and gathering tempest, looming up in horrible 
portentous darkness, already high above the horizon. May not, 
and cannot God, in His providence, accomplish what we judge 
impracticable? Who will Hmit the resources of His wisdom 
and power? 



JLiv 



15 



But we may not ask for miracles, says vmbelief. And yet 
the Bible is full of examples, offered for our encouragement and 
hope, of miracles wrought in the earth, in answer to the praver 
of faith. James 5 : 16-18. Call it miracle, or wonder, or extra- 
ordinary interposition of Providence, or whatever else you please, 
numerous and marvellous are the instances of signal deliverances 
wrought in the earth in the history of individuals, and of nations, 
in answer to prayer. Shall we then, as Christian patriots, cow- 
ardly shrink from the responsibilities of the occasion, and 
consult the oracles of party or prejudice, at the suggestion of 
unbelief, rather than the oracles of God ? Who will or dare deny, 
that God does answer prayer, when offered in penitence and 
faith, and the thing asked is for His honor, and befitting His 
glory to accomplish. 

It is true. He never fulfils our request exactly in the way we 
may dictate to Him, or expect. His wisdom infinitely excels ours. 
Prayer answered by God is always in such way as to humble us, 
and to exalt ffimself, so that it shall be seen, that He has infinite 
resources, and can, by most unlikely and unlocked for means, 
most easily accomplish, what to the unbelieving mind appeared 
impossible. May not His providence be about to give this na- 
tion, and the world through it, an illustration of this thing ? If 
He has said, " Call upon Me in the day of trouble. I will deliver 
thee, and thou shalt glorify me," shall any of us timidly start 
back, and hesitate, or dread, to put Him to the test ? and in this 
very matter experiment upon His faithfulness ? Whether we, or 
any or all of us, as Christian patriots, will or will not take part 
in this morally sublime experiment, upon the Divine faithfulness, 
it is one that has been in process for years, and seems to be fast 
approaching its consummation. It meets us this day, under 
marked conditions, and appeals to aU the nobler feelings of om- 
human and Christian hearts. 

Multitudes, both in the North and in the South, have been 
for years earnestly and devoutly praying to God, for the abolition 
of slavery, with its myriad ills and abominations. Let not the 
term startle us and electrify our prejudices. It is a great historic 
fact. Say and think, what we may, about the motives of nu- 



16 

merous suppliants, God knows them much better than we can. 
And He can separate between the gold and dross, the precious 
and the vile. Who is prepared to say, that the cries of His elect, 
in numerous instances, have not entered into the ears of the Lord 
God of Hosts ? And that He has not appointed this as the set 
time to answer them, tho' like a clap of thunder in a clear sky, 
it has taken the nation by surprise? It will not justify our unbe- 
lieving fears to say, we did not look for it, we thought it impos- 
sible, we think it might have been let alone, or attempted in 
some other and better way; nor that we foresee terrible sufiering, 
dangerous excitement, party collisions, disastrous results for both 
master and slave ; nor, that there may be and are much of 
wickedness in conduct, and malice in motive, on the part of 
many, who have for a quarter of a century kept the subject in 
constant and irritating agitation. Our jjnidence is not the rule 
of Divine providence. Nor is it for us to dictate to His Sove- 
reio-nty. When He undertakes to act, in the affairs of men, 
either to chasten or to benefit a people. He uses the means He 
finds most appropriate, and at hand. 

Of necessity, in the exercise of a mediatorial government over 
a o-uilty world, wicked men as well as righteous men, will be 
found associated in various civil, social, and national relations. 
God's providence embraces all, and He that " makes the wrath 
of man to praise Him," and " restrains the remainder of wrath," 
in undertaking to accomplish the great designs of His providence, 
works by the corrupt as well as holy. Whether it be erring 
prophets, delirious kings, rulers stricken with madness, persecut- 
ors, selfish, foes, or friends, when God means to do good, by what 
they mean for evil. He can so overrule and order, as he did in 
Joseph, and his brethren's history," to save much people alive. 

That which, then, seems to be of chief concern in this matter 
to us as Christian men and women, is the inquiry, is there any- 
thing morally wrong, on the part of the governmental authority, 
and its measures, which we cannot, with a good conscience, sub- 
mit to, and support ? This is a question to be answered, not by 
party platforms, policy or pretexts; but by prayerful consultation 
with God, om- Lawgiver and Judge, m the candid, honest, exam- 



^3^ 

17 

ination of His own word. If a good conscience does not require 
us to make ourselves martjTS for God and Christ, by rebelling 
against those in authority, piety toward God, and loyalty to 
country, require us to obey them that rule over us. 

The most zealous partizan and advocate of the cause of 
secession, cannot claim, that, by rebelling against the authority 
of the United States, for the protection and perpetuation of 
slavery, in opposition to the scorn of the world, they who are so 
engaged, and leading on their followers by despotic force, are 
piously and meritoriously making themselves martyrs for God's 
sake and Christ's sake. Here then we must meet, and cannot 
honestly dodge, the question, forced upon us by tlie providence of 
God. Have we a sufficient justifying reason for disobedience, 
and denunciation of the ruling authorities, and thus sympathising 
and taking co-operative part with the rebellion? In reply 
it may, and perhaps will be said, the prospective emancipation 
contingently proclaimed by the President, is an exercise of power 
not given him as a civil ruler by the constitution. True. But 
that sa^ae constitution confers on Congress, the power " to declare 
war," " to raise and support armies and a navy," " to make rules 
for their government," and " to enact all laws which shall be 
necessary and proper for canying into execution" these and 
kindred powers. Act 1, sec. 7. It also makes the President 
Commander-in-Chief, of the army and navy of the United States, 
and of the militia of the several States, when called into actual 
service, and holds him pledged, by oath, faithfully to execute his 
office. 

Both Congress, and the President as Commander-in-Chief of 
the anny and navy, have acted in their respective functions, and 
declared the emancipation of the slaves of those in rebellion to 
be necessary and proper, in the prosecution of the war, initiated 
by rebellion, and unavoidable in defence and support of the 
constitution, and the administration of the government. That 
necessity having been publicly declared by the constitutional 
authorities, the alternative presented to our consciences in this 
matter, is simply, submission to lawful government, on the one 
hand, or rebellion against it on the other. This is the dilemma 



18 

in which every citizen for the present is placed. Though it has been 
through the agency of men, it is by the hand of Providence. 
We cannot possibly avoid it, or postpone it to a future demonstra- 
tion at the polls. It is important for us, therefore, to ask, whether 
this prospective emancipation already proclaimed, may not be 
the very way, which God, in his providence, has seen fitting as 
the initial step for the removal of an evil, and a reproach to this 
nation, for which, since the very origin of the government, prayer 
has not ceased to be made in the land, North, South, East, and 
West? 

Whatever may be om- feare, and our predictions ; whatever 
the aggravations of horror and wretchedness, or the gildings of 
hope and joy, that any of us may think we see, in the dark 
rising cloud, it ushers in a crisis of immeasurable and tremen- 
dous magnitude. It ought not to be regarded with indifference, 
by any ; and cannot be dismissed with inattention by the patri- 
otic, sober minded citizen, or praying Christian. One of the 
most amazing events, ever recorded in history, approaches us — 
the instant liberation by edict of war, of more than three mil- 
lions of slaves; which, if accomplished, must necessarily draw 
after it, the enfranchisement, sooner or later, of one million more. 
It approaches us as one of the grandest epochs in the history of 
om* country ; and throws upon Congress, at its coming session, a 
responsibility, and calls for the solution of problems, unspeaka- 
bly important to the safety and happiness of millions of our 
population, both white and black. Is the nation about to perpe- 
trate a wrong, or to consummate a good, to either or to both 
the races among whom universal emancipation is, after the 1st 
of January, 1863, to be the accomplished fact, and the policy for 
EVER, to which its faith shall be pledged ? 

Humanity asks, what shaU be the disposition made of the 
ignorant, penniless millions, with their hosts of helpless, young, 
infirm, sick and aged imbeciles, soon to be introduced into 
liberty, by the power of the government, if it be competent, 
with its million hosts, to do it ? It will be for Congress to meet 
its awful responsibilities herein, by the investigations and legis- 
lation demanded at their hands, in the name of virtue, patriot- 



1/^ 



19 



ism, humanity, and of God. The President has suggested some, 
and promised other means of mitigating anticipated ills. Colon- 
ization, and deportation to foreign countries, can never meet the 
overwhelming magnitude of the exigency. They must prove but 
feeble rills. As a means of entire and adequate potency, they 
are just as absurd as they are impracticable. What then is to 
be, or can be, done with the slave population ? They love the 
soil that gave them birth, the climate in which they have been 
bred, and, many of them, the masters and mistresses whom they 
serve, however dear and desirable freedom is to them all. The 
masses of them will not leave for the North unless forced to do 
so. They must encounter, if they do, armed prejudices, and 
combinations of hostile influence, and even force, such as have 
already displayed themselves, on the part of those who fear such 
accessions would reduce wages so low as to prove ruinous to free 
laboring men. Moreover, the abstracting of their labor from the 
South would be fatal to all its agricultural interests. It would be 
to devastate and destroy, more fatally than by war, the posses- 
sions, property, and population of the Southern States; and thus 
seriously and permanently derange and damage the manufactur- 
ing and commercial interests, both of the North and of the 
nations of Europe. Hence it is thought, that enfranchisement is, 
and can only be, so fraught with evil and suffering, that it can- 
not be the will of a benignant Providence; and, therefore, prayer 
can never be made in faith, or be pleasing to God. 

But it may be well, in om- attempt to estimate onr dutj', and 
the future destiny of our country, to inquire here, whether the 
providence of God cannot so obviate all these evils, however 
solemn and portentous they seem, as to make, what, at first 
sight, may appear enormous unmitigated ill, a real and lasting 
blessing, to both the white and black races in the Southern 
States ? K the slaves can have the protection of law, be allowed 
the riglits of marriage, and of the parental and filial relations, be 
put upon a moral equality — ;iust the equality that the moral law 
recognizes and assumes as common and inalienable to all; — and 
the means and obligations of self support, by industrial labor for 
proper wages, be conceded, under some proper and salutary sys- 



20 

tern of tenantry, or serfdom, or apprenticeship, the enslaved 
population will have all, at present needed and desired by them, 
and the planters, farmers, and white population of the South, 
also, will have what they need, and with less peril, perplexity, 
and expense for their laborers. 

The question of social equality can never be settled by human 
legislation. It will ever be subject to the decisions of taste, and 
the condition of society. That of political equality pertains, and 
must ever do so, to the decisions of State sovereignty. The Sy- 
nod of Micliigan has said nothing on the subject of social and 
political equality, but only of moral, which concedes to every 
partaker of humanity, that he is not a chattel, not a beast 
of burden, but a human being, and, as such, should be allowed, 
for the honor of God and best interests of society, to qualify 
himself by education, morality, and religion, for the rights and 
privileges of a citizen, whether as a member of the Church, the 
city of our God, or of the civil commmiity. The denial of such 
moral equality, is to brutalize a portion of humanity. These 
questions, and those of compensation, with matters incidental, 
will demand the wisdom and co-operation of all the friends of 
God and man. As for those who will not allow discussion, and 
will not calmly look at the subject, which God, in His providence, 
has thrust upon oiu* attention, but will bluster in rage, and im- 
peach motive, and traduce their friends and neighbors, fired by 
party zeal and prejudice on either hand, they neither know, nor 
can appreciate, wliat true freedom is, and cannot be its safe con- 
servators. 

One word more, and we have done with this attempt to esti- 
mate oiU" duty, and reasons ot hope for the future of oiu- country, 
in view of what is thought by many, to be the perilous experi- 
ment of emancipation, as proclaimed by the President. Many 
who concede and claim, botli morally and legally, the right of 
■property, in man, regard tlie emancipation proclaimed as a rob- 
bery to be perpetrated by power, whicli cannot meet the appro- 
bation of God. To this, in oiu* own, and in tlie opinion of many 
others, it will be sufficient to remark, that in strict justice, ac- 
cording to the sanction of the Divine law, and the example and 



Ji6y 



21 



illustration, given by tlie God of Israel, in His own theocratic 
constitution and code, the fact of rebellion against hiwfid author- 
ity persisted in, rightfidly induces not only a forfeiture of pro- 
perty, but of life. Let Ezra be the commentator here : " "Who- 
soever will not do the law of thy God, and the law of the king, 
let judgment be executed speedily upon him, whether it be unto 
death, or to banishment, or to confiscation of goods, or to im- 
prisonment." — Ezra 7: 26. 

To what extent, however, such justice shall be exacted, is to be 
left to the consideration of clemency and mercy on the part of 
the Judge. On this point we will not here insist. Nehemiah's 
administration deserves careful study. Nehemiah 5: 9-13. For 
our own part, and we frankly state it as our own personal oj^inion, 
thirty years since maturely adopted, and publicly stated, we think 
there is much of fallacy in the plea urged against the destruction 
of the property, and alleged robbery, and impoverishment, of 
slaveholders, by emancipation. 'It may be made such; but it is 
not necessarily so. For there is possible, and easy too, such an 
exercise of wisdom, by a well devised and guarded system of 
emancipation, as to make it a boon, and means of enrichment 
rather than of impoverishment to the slaveholder. 

We speak not, now, of trade in slaves; nor of propagating 
and rearing slaves for the market, as is done legitimately with 
sheep, swine, and other bnite animals. It is an ofience alike 
against God and man, and is, to a very great extent, abhorred and 
condemned by honest, upright, pious slaveholders at the South 
themselves. But we speak of slaves as thought and claimed to 
be the capital indispensable to agriculture, by the growth of 
cotton, indigo, sugar, and other staples, appropriate to Southern 
climates and soil. Suppose a planter needs 100 slaves, to ac- 
complish the labor of his fann or plantation. Say that, on an 
average, they are worth $500 apiece. Estimated in dollars and 
cents, this working capital is set down at the sum of $50,000- 
Admit that the slaveholder can sell them for that round sum. 
You say to emancipate them by law, proclamation, or any other 
way, would be to inflict on him the loss of just that amount. We 
say, not necessarily so. For, suppose the planter vohmtarily 



22 

disposes of them himself, and puts that amount into his pocket. 
It is true, he may remove, and carry that amount with him, if 
he can favorably sell his lands, and quit the country. But sup- 
pose now — ^which supposition meets the cases most numerous, 
and most in point, — that this planter, who has sold his 100 slaves, 
must, or wills to, live on his estate, and work it, for his support 
and enrichment, as he has ever done; he must go at once into 
market, and as his 100 slaves were needed, buy just that amount 
of others, at the market rates ; and what has he gained by the 
operation ? Nothing but a change of laborers. Not a dollar 
has he really added to his cash capital. Of necessity, it has been 
reinvested as before, and the change is just as likely to have 
proved a loss as a gain. 

But now, suppose that the laws of his State, and some wise 
and equitable system of emancipation, enable him to retain these 
slaves, not as slaves, but as laborers, so that, while conceding to 
them the freedom of their parsons, families, and homes, and in- 
stituting a judicious benignant tenantry, he employs and gets 
their labor for wages, without any obligation of other support from 
him, — then he has not only secured the amount of necessary la- 
bor, he had before, to be even better and more cheerfully rendered, 
but he has actually created, to some extent, a market at his own 
door, for what had previously been consumed and wasted, at his 
expense. Emancipation on the soil will thus be rendered the 
means of economy and thrift. Such has been the working of 
emancipation, actually, where wisdom and benevolence have 
plamied and carried it out, in other lands; and that too, the more 
quickly and certainly, just as the laborer, dependent on his em- 
ployer, has seen or been convinced, that his landlord is his friend 
and guardian. 

The case thus stated is not ideal. May we not then hope, 
that there will be foimd wisdom, benevolence, and Christianity 
enough in our country, when the pressure of necessity, in the 
providence of God, shall be brought to bear upon the South, 
and also that there will be wisdom of legislation in Congress, 
and kindness, fidelity, and firmness, in the executive department 
of government, by some process of emancipation judiciously pro- 



2S 

vided for, to relieve the South, from an incubus upon their pros- 
perity, which they have ever felt with terrible and fretting severity ? 
In praying for it, therefore, we may pray for what, if God give 
his blessing, and direct the change, we can see, shall prove of 
incalculable benefit to master and to slave; serve to heal existing 
wounds and exacerbations; confirm the Unity, and promote the 
prosperity, of the country; advance the interests of humanity; and 
secure honor and glory to God. 

We have sought, beloved hearers, to transfer our whole 
thoughts and heart to you on this subject, and to give you the 
analysis of it, as it has long lain in our own mind, regardless of 
parties, pro or anti, on so weighty and solemn a subject, at such 
a momentous crisis in our nation's affairs.* If we can lay hold 
upon the arm of God, and link the interests of our country with 
His throne, we are safe. We need not fear the result if we are 
with Him, and do right. He will be with us, our annies, our 
navies, our counsellors ; they are all in His hands. 

We have erred in looking to man alone to direct them. It 
is our privilege and duty to look to a power above man ; and in 
this day of darkness, peril, and dismay, implore help from the 
God of our salvation. There is such a thing as benefitting others 
greatly, by means wisely and benevolently employed, which, at 
the time, they may object to, and think injurious ; but aftewards 
will acknowledge to have been a blessing. Should this be the result 
of the war rebellion has provoked and rendered unavoidable, 
the coming generations, both North and South together, wUl re- 
joice and be thankful. The country will become yet more pros- 
perous, and renowned, and God be glorified. Who will not say. 
Amen and amen ? 

God bless our native land ! 
Firm may she ever stand, 
Thro' storm and night ; 

• The views unfolded above, were published by the author of this discourse in 
the New York Commercial Advertiser and Spectator, in a series of essays, in 
1834-5, urging a pro-rata dividend of the surplus revenue to the State-, for the 
purpose of inducing slave States severally to adopt some system of gradual eman- 
cipation, of their own enactment. The Editor, Col. Stoue, commended the idea, 
but added, the public mind was not prepared for it. 



24 -^^ 



When the wild tempests rave, 
Ruler of wind and wave. 
Do Thou our country save, 
By Thy great might. 

For her our prayer shall rise, 
To God above the skies ; 

On Him we wait ; 
Thou who hast heard each sigh, 
"Watching each weeping eye. 
Be Thou for ever nigh, — 

God save the State ! 



Ebbata. — For " we," in 7th line from the bottom, on page 8, read crime. For 
Joseph," in 8th line from the bottom of page IG, read Joseph's. 



LBD'ib 



